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Second-year student wins Habbas Scholarship

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) —

Gaber Saleh, a second-year medical student, has won the 2012-13 Amin and Nancy Habbas Scholarship, established to help high-achieving students of Arab origin enrolled at the UC Davis School of Medicine. Saleh has received a $1,000 scholarship.

Saleh also won the Habbas Scholarship last year in his first year as a medical student. Criteria for the Habbas Scholarship, established in 1991, include leadership potential, community and extracurricular involvement, financial need and academic achievement.

Saleh, an Antioch native, is a Rural-PRIME student and was drawn to the program for the chance to learn how to practice rural medicine and become a leader in his community. Saleh's parents were both born and raised in Yemen, before they immigrated to the U.S. on a work visa.

In 2012, Saleh led a rural health fair in Jackson, which aids migrant farm workers that are unable to receive medical care. He said he is particularly sympathetic to the plight of farm workers because his father worked as a migrant farm worker when he first immigrated to America. His father told him of the many hardships that he and his fellow workers faced in trying to receive health care.

Saleh also volunteers at the student-run community clinic , Imani Clinic, providing care to underserved populations. He hopes to return to Yemen, where the rest of his extended family still resides, to establish health clinics in poor rural areas like those where his parents were raised.

The UC Davis School of Medicine is among the nation's leading medical schools, recognized for its research and primary-care programs. The school offers fully accredited master's degree programs in public health and in informatics, and its combined M.D.-Ph.D. program is training the next generation of physician-scientists to conduct high-impact research and translate discoveries into better clinical care. Along with being a recognized leader in medical research, the school is committed to serving underserved communities and advancing rural health. For more information, visit UC Davis School of Medicine at medschool.ucdavis.edu.